Encouraging tavern patrons to make plans to take a cab or find another safe way home is one of the initiatives of the Alcohol & Other Drugs Partnership Council.

As we've written before, no one will adequately address Wisconsin's alcohol culture with policy changes alone. It will take a community effort.

Some of the most important work done by Marathon County's Alcohol & Other Drugs Partnership Council is to knit together community groups - businesses, nonprofits, government agencies - to find common ground and ways to move forward in the fight against drunken driving, binge drinking and illegal drugs. The coalition has taken a big-tent approach, working with local businesses to disseminate message.

Members of the group's board and Drug-Free Communities Coordinator Melissa Dotter recently sat down with the Daily Herald Media Editorial Board to discuss its approach and initiatives for 2013.

One of the keys to successful work is the use of evidence in tailoring effective messages. For example, one of the AOD Council's initiatives is to encourage people who are going out to bars to make plans to get home without driving drunk. Dotter said research shows that if you try to tell this group of people how much to drink, they shut down, become closed to the message. A message that tells them to plan to take a cab, walk home or use a designated driver is much more likely to get through.

Would members of the AOD Council also prefer to reduce binge drinking in absolute terms? Of course, and for good reasons. But for this specific initiative, the goal is more modest, and in this case that makes it more effective. In some cases a "harm reduction" approach, or one that aims for incremental improvements rather than sweeping changes in people's behavior, can be the best way to make change happen.

A more potent example, discussed in our interview by AOD Council board president Wally Sparks, who is chief of police for the Everest Metro Police Department, was the 2012 training sessions law enforcement provided for bartenders and tavern owners. When a patron died in a crash after leaving a Weston bar, the bartender was charged with overserving. It's a charge police departments in Wisconsin rarely use, and it got the attention of bar owners and the Tavern League of Wisconsin.

But instead of approaching that as an adversarial relationship and the Tavern League as a foe, Sparks and others worked to organize the training sessions to educate servers and owners about the law - and about cutting off patrons before they can endanger themselves and others.

Other key initiatives the group will undertake this year include disseminating information about the spread of opiates and illegal drugs in the community; "The Real Happy Hour," a campaign to encourage families to spend time together; and outreach efforts in rural Marathon County.

Because the coalition is focused on prevention and public information, it can be difficult to measure outcomes. We don't know how many people didn't drive drunk in part because of efforts undertaken.

But we do know the community is moving in the right direction, and that the AOD Partnership Council's efforts are part of the solution.

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Our View: Big-tent approach helps coalition succeed

As we've written before, no one will adequately address Wisconsin's alcohol culture with policy changes alone. It will take a community effort.

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